Quake Causes Officials to Take Two Nuclear Reactors Offline Near Epicenter
- Posted on August 23, 2011 at 3:09pm by
Liz Klimas
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Two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power Station in Louisa County, Va., were automatically taken off line by safety systems around the time of today’s 5.8 magnitude earthquake. The plant is located seven miles northeast of the quake’s epicenter in Mineral, Va.
The earthquake struck this afternoon and was felt along the East Coast.
The Dominion-operated power plant is being run off three emergency diesel generators, which are supplying power for critical safety equipment. A fourth diesel generator failed, but it wasn’t considered an emergency because the other generators are working.The NRC and Dominion are sending people to inspect the plant.
According to CNN, who spoke with Louisa County spokeswoman Amanda Reidelbach, there has been no release of nuclear material but the generators are needed to keep things cool, which was the issue that caused the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima earlier this year after Japan’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami:
A disruption of offsite power, not an unheard of event, is one of the biggest fears for critics of nuclear power. Power is needed to circulate water that both cools the rector core and the spent fuel, which lies near the reactor in specially-designed pools.
It was the loss of power at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, not the tsunami itself, that ultimately led that plant to meltdown. The flooding prevented backup generators from working.
. . .
When offsite power is lost, nuclear power plants can usually rely on backup diesel generators for several days, although offsite power is normally restored within hours.
As reported by the Washington Post:
“As far as we know, everything is safe,” said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman David McIntyre.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Roger Hannah says the agency was not immediately aware of any damage at nuclear power plants in the southeast. According to CNN, the NRC reported that the nine other nuclear power plants in New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland have not reported any conditions that would merit a shutdown.
Louisa County is about 40 miles northwest of Richmond and 70 miles from Washington, DC.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Ron_WA
Posted on August 24, 2011 at 12:36amI tried not to comment; I made it 4 hours before I could take it no more.
Blaze – come on: enough w/ the misleading headlines. Officials did not shut the plant down, if anything engineers did by way of the safeguards the designed into the plant to automatically shut down at a pre-determined level of seismic disruption
(agreed this is relatively minor compared to some other gaping errors I’ve seen here but it goes to a pattern of playing free & loose w/ the facts). You are killing your credibility.
Report Post »ashestoashes
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 10:41pmSeems like no one really cares about the nuclear reactors in the US. Russia is phasing them out over the next 20 years http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fCCVU4y7oE&feature=related I saw another video on this. The effects were devasting. It is a still a dead zone 25 yrs later Zech 14:12 says that all the nations that go against Jerusalem ..Their flesh shall consume away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. i believe that this will be nuclear. We need to get rid of this stuff, it has the potential to kill us all in a very unpleasant way.
Report Post »Hanford Site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE-JolVLGIU
Steel Awesome
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 7:48pmThere’s nothing like a real life test of backup systems to tell if they really work. This will be good news to the engineers and will probably lead to improved systems.
Report Post »Wyatt's Torch
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 7:32pmThe POTUS and FLOTUS must have parked their motorcades on the Mawthas Vinyad Fault and caused the earth to shift, as was feared in Guam.
Report Post »TJexcite
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 7:27pmThe MSM went to the nuke plants to find problem no matter how small and faster then the houses and towns closest to the epicenter. They needed to turn on a coal plant to power a nuke plant. dumbest question was How long can the diesel generators last. With out mention that they could be filled up as long as there is gas in the world as the road was not wash out by a huge wave.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on August 24, 2011 at 1:29amSince the power grid is functioning, I bet that they don’t even need any of the diesels to be working. Still, it’s nice to know that a backup system is working.
Report Post »tarkus
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 6:37pmNot much of a story. A number of things could cause the plant to lose it’s external power and the backups worked as planned.
But now we’re going to have to hear about how nuclear plants are in so much danger for the next two months or so…
Report Post »sbleve
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 6:20pmThank goodness for nuke officials. For a moment there may have been a 7-11 clerk doing the ‘off line’ calculation. TSA is prepared to do all touchy sensitive adjustments.
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 7:11pmThe union guy in charge of that fourth generator, is in for a stern look by his boss.
Report Post »disneydoxies
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 6:07pmIt looks like the weight of the mountain of debt finally causing the earth to shift in washington…
Report Post »capitalismrocks
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 5:41pmYes, I‘m sure he’s going to demand that another Stimulus package for $800 Billion be passed immediately for earthquake relief….
Report Post »ENDtheFED2012
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 5:35pmObama came out with a statement blaming the Tea Party for the cause of the earthquake.
Report Post »He said the Tea Party puts America at risk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bNiDx7qTjA
fastfacts
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 5:30pmAND THEY CRITICIZED BUSH… OBAMA STAYED ON THE GREEN DURING THE EARTHQUAKE AND ANSWERED A FEW PHONE CALLS WHILE PLAYING THROUGH…
Here is the clip: http://www.americanparchment.com/video/2011/aug/obama_earthquake.html
Report Post »Seagal45
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 5:17pmYep, never let a crisis go to waste, what a surprise.
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